2025 Conclave

The Impact/Failure Conclave 2025, themed Shifting Sands: Paving the Path to 2030, drew inspiration from the dynamic nature of shifting sands—constantly in motion and reshaping landscapes.

Through stories of failure across sectors like climate resilience, rural livelihoods, and healthcare, the conclave emphasized that failures are not final—they are part of a continuous process of aging, adaptation, and renewal. Much like sand particles that “creep” over time or accelerate under disturbances, failures reveal the hidden forces shaping progress. These lessons are essential as we navigate the shifting sands of global challenges on the road to 2030.

Sessions

Day 1
Day 2

Day 1

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Welcome Note

Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, IIM Bangalore

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Keynote Address

Rohini Nilekani, Chairperson, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies

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Failures in Solving for People and Planet: Moving Towards a Climate 360 Approach

The biggest failure in meeting climate goals has been the pace and aggression with which climate programs have been designed, executed, and evaluated. While we might not have time left for mitigation measures, just transition and adaptation can be designed in an exponentially effective manner if we delve into the failures of previous and current climate-driven initiatives. Practitioners discuss how and why we may have failed the climate crisis and what we can learn moving forward.

Moderated By: Rohini Nilekani, Chairperson, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies

Speakers: Carl Pope, Principal, Inside Straight Strategies; Asif Saleh, Executive Director, BRAC, Bangladesh; Harini Nagendra, Director, School of Climate Change and Sustainability, Azim Premji University; Anshu Gupta, Founder, Goonj

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The Promise and Failure of the Philanthropic Model

Today, more than ever, philanthropies need to strengthen their role and accountability in reaching inclusion and environmental goals. How is the philanthropy model evolving and what are the key lessons on designing for climate action and poverty alleviation in a sustained manner. Join this session to hear from philanthropies on how they view their failures, and learn from their experience of having supported various institutions and initiatives over time.

Moderated By: Manoj Kumar, Founder, Social Alpha

Speakers:Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, GEAPP; Dhruvi Shah, CEO, Axis Bank Foundation; Lande Ajose, Managing Director, Chief of Staff, Waverly Street Foundation

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Special Address

Suresh Prabhu, Former Union Minister

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Deep Dive Sessions

Failure in Translating Biodiversity Policy into Localized Action
Failure of Development Programs in Africa
Failures in Innovations: Agri-tech
Workshop: Monitoring Success or Learning from Failures – Part I
Re-imagining Rural Ambitions: Failures in Entrepreneurship
Humanitarian Energy Lessons Learned-Bridging Short-term Relief with Long-term Investments

Failure of Development Programs in Africa

Development programs in Africa have focused on addressing poverty, climate change, and sustainable development. However, ground realities highlight the failure of most initiatives despite significant investments due to a misalignment with local needs, local contexts and poor coordination and planning. Join us as we learn from these failures and explore avenues to innovate more responsive, locally-driven strategies that prioritize community engagement, indigenous knowledge and adapt to the dynamic needs of Africa’s diverse populations in the face of climate change.

Moderated By: Haileselassie Medhin, Programmes Director, IKEA Foundation

Speakers: Million Belay,General Coordinator, Alliance for Food Sovereignty for Africa; Simon O’Connell, CEO, SNV Makena Ireri, Director- Demand, Jobs and Livelihoods, The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet; Vijay Modi, Professor, Columbia University; Paul T. Yillia, Manager, The Energy Nexus Network; Sisty Basil, Executive Director, ELICO Foundation.

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Humanitarian Energy Lessons Learned - Bridging Short-term Relief with Long-term Investments

Energy access in humanitarian contexts often fails due to fragm ented funding, short-term planning, and a lack of expertise and coordination among stakeholders. Around 90% of refugees lack access to electricity and 80% rely on traditional biomass for cooking, due to emergency-driven approaches prioritising im mediate needs, therefore sidelining sustainable energy solutions. Limited engagement with displaced communities and ho st governments exacerbates the challenge, leading to poorly designed energy systems that are inefficient or abandoned . With humanitarian needs rising and proven energy access technologies accessible, it is essential to learn from past hum anitarian energy programming to integrate best practices on energy planning and implementation into humanitarian and develo pment strategies and avoid repeating past inefficiencies. This session will review emerging lessons learned on what works (and doesn’t) for how to deliver clean energy access, sustainably, in humanitarian contexts.

Moderated By: Tash Perros, Senior Research Fellow, UCL

Speakers: G. Shandeepan, Director for Skill Development, Doctors For You; Fazle Muztaba, Founder & Director, Envo Renewable Energy Services; Andrea Arricale, Energy Specialist Consultant, World Bank; Aimee Jenks, Strategy and Partnerships Lead, Global Platform for Action, UNITAR

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Failures in Innovations: Agri-tech

Agricultural technology is key to improving farm productivity and helping farmers adopt sustainable practices. However, bringing technology to farms can be challenging, especially given the wide variety in land types, crop patterns, irrigation methods, and farm sizes. Join this discussion to understand on why technology innovation falls short of meeting the needs of farms in India.

Moderated By: Nagaraja Prakasam, Angel Investor

Speakers: Ramanjaneyulu GV, Executive Director, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture; Devika Chandrasekharan, Co-Founder, Fuselage Innovations; Prajwal M, Founder and CEO, Oscillo Machines; Onkar Pandey, Director – Livelihood and Prosperity, Social Alpha

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Monitoring Success or Learning from Failures - Part I

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) is often reduced to a compliance tool. Designed primarily to meet reporting requirements, it fails to deliver on its full potential as a catalyst for change, leaving those involved fatigued and frustrated. Join us for an interactive workshop where we work with your stories and experiences (of MEL failure and success) to reimagine MEL as a collaborative process that empowers users and fosters a culture of openness, innovation, and learning.

Moderated By: Andre Ling, Director, Interconnect Consulting Limited;

Speakers: Anirban Ghose, Co – Founder, Transform Rural India; Gurshabadjeet Singh, MEL & Strategy Consultant; Devyani Srinivasan, Lead Consultant, Probex Consulting; Akanksha Singh, Senior Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Officer, Young Feminist Fund.

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Failure in Translating Biodiversity Policy into Localized Action

This plenary will explore the persistent gap between biodiversity policies and their implementation at the grassroots level. Despite well-crafted frameworks and significant investments, local stakeholders often struggle to align with global and national goals due to systemic, social, and operational challenges.

Speakers from philanthropies, NGOs (researchers and practitioners), and government bodies will share their perspectives on why these disconnects occur. Through candid discussions, the session aims to uncover lessons from past failures, propose actionable strategies for bridging the policy-practice divide, and inspire collaborative solutions that empower localized biodiversity action.

In partnership with Ashraya Hastha Trust

Moderated By: Sonya Fernandes, Chief Program Officer, Ashraya Hastha Trust;

Speakers: Rohan Arthur, Head scientist – Oceans & Coasts, Nature Conservation Foundation; Saloni Bhatia, Fellow, ATREE; Sujana Krishnamoorthy, Executive Director, Under the Mango Tree Society; Rushikesh Chavan, Head, The Habitat Trust

Re-imagining Rural Ambitions: Failures in Entrepreneurship

Rural entrepreneurship holds great potential to address major issues like poverty and migration along with building climate resilience among rural communities. However, efforts to support rural livelihoods have mostly focused on skill training programs, thus failing to tap the true potential and entrepreneurial spirit of rural youth. In this session, we dive deeper into learnings in promoting entrepreneurship in rural areas- what are the shortfalls and how can we reimagine rural entrepreneurship as a way to drive inclusive development?

In partnership with Buddha Institute

Moderated By: Ved Arya, Founder Director, The Buddha Institute

Speakers: Iaishah Rymbai, Founder, Eriweave; Dinesh Goel, Investment Partner, Siana Capital; Sathish Kumar CAV, Founder, Swachha Kaadyam; Catherine Lalmuanpuii, Co – Founder, Thlado GreenTech; Sanjay Guha, Angel Investor; Kuldeep Dantewadia, CEO, Reap Benefit; Svati Bhogle, Founder, Sustaintech India Private Limited

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Fire Side Chat

Huda Jaffer and Dr. Ravi Kannan

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Redefining Success Metrics in Indian Film Industry

While success stories from the Indian Film Industry captivate global audiences, the underlying struggles and failures often go unnoticed. These challenges are integral to shaping a filmmaker’s journey and voice, providing lessons that extend beyond the screen. In this session, we delve deeper into these untold narratives, exploring the complexities of balancing creativity with commercial viability. How can the industry embrace its failures to innovate and redefine success in a rapidly changing landscape? What can these lessons teach the next generation of storytellers, equipping them to navigate the evolving dynamics of the entertainment world?

Moderated By: Amala Akkineni, Actress, Director of Annapurna College of Film and Media

Speakers: Prashanth Neel, Film Director and Screenwriter; Akshat Ajay Sharma, Film Director & Writer.

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Day 2

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From Social Systems to Social Soil

Otto Scharmer, Founding Chair, The Presencing Institute

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Too Big to Fail-Failure of Policies

Policies are a statement of intent, designed often as a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and prioritize a certain mandate, vision or ideology. As we discuss humanity’s future, policy can play a critical role in incentivizing markets, and citizen ecosystems to act towards climate action and responding to growing inequality. Join this candid discussion to know how failures are viewed and dealt with at a macro scale. How do policy stakeholders across regional, national, and multi-lateral ecosystems navigate complex problem statements, design for effective governance, create conditions for deep and sustained impact and catalyze scale?

Moderated By: Peter Goldmark, Independent Climate And Social Change Advisor

Speakers: Raihan Elahi, Lead Energy Specialist, ESMAP (Energy Sector Management Assistance Program); Gurbuz Gonul, Director – Country Engagement & Partnerships, IRENA; Richenda Van Leeuwen, President, Hummingbird Green Solutions

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An Education on Failures by Academia

Many might say the biggest gap in the impact sector is human resources. This session brings together leading thinkers from academia- responsible for nurturing human brains for innovative and creative problem-solving. How can we learn from the failures in academia over the past many years in nurturing individual minds who can take on and do justice to the development agenda for the next 20 years.

Moderated By: Chintan Vaishnav, Former Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog

Speakers: Geetha Narayanan, Founder-Director, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology; Ambuj Sagar, Deputy Director (Strategy & Planning), IIT Delhi; Sanjay Purohit, CEO, Centre For Exponential Change; Manu V. Mathai, Director – Research, Data & Impact, WRI India

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Failure as Fuel: Lessons in Resilience and Leadership

In a world often defined by inequality and complex challenges, youth can be particularly hard on themselves, viewing failure as a personal flaw rather than a universal experience and a source of growth. This session seeks to shift that perspective by showcasing the journeys of four inspiring RMAF Emergent Leadership awardees— visionaries who turned failures into opportunities for learning, resilience, and transformative impact. (In Partnership with Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation)

Moderated By: Hari Natarajan, Programme Specialist, UNDP India

Speakers: Farwiza Farhan, Forest Conservationist; Chung To, Founder & Chairperson, Chi Heng Foundation; Gary Bencheghib, Co – Founder, Sungai Watch; Ravi Kannan R, Director Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre

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Special Address

Sampath Kumar, Principal Secretary & Development Commissioner Health & Family Welfare Department, Government of Meghalaya, India

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Deep Dive Sessions

Failures in Innovations: Med-Tech for Climate-Health Nexus
Workshop: Presencing – Seven Practices from Transforming Systems & Self
Navigating Failures: Farmers’ Perspective
Navigating Failures: Government’s Perspective
Start-up Boom or Entrepreneurship Bubble
Solar Irrigation Systems for Smallholder Farmers: Failures and Opportunities
Workshop: Monitoring Success or Learning from Failures – Part II

Start-up Boom or Entrepreneurship Bubble

Incubators play a pivotal role in creating the ecosystems needed to foster innovation, drive inclusive economic growth, and address social and environmental challenges. By nurturing startups and enterprises that focus on solving the most critical issues such as poverty and climate change, however, the goal is far from being met. Join the incubation ecosystem as it reflects on the gaps that are yet to be filled in harnessing an inclusive entrepreneurial environment. In partnerhsip with NSRCEL IIM Bangalore and Social Alpha

Moderated By: Rachita Misra, Associate Director, SELCO Foundation;

Speakers: Lakshmi Jagannathan, CEO, Innovation Center IIIT Bangalore; Anand Sri Ganesh, CEO, NSRCEL IIM Bangalore; Durga Prasad Gouda, CEO, AIC – Nalanda Institute of Technology Foundation; Dr. Anita Gupta, Head of Scientific Division, Climate Energy & Sustainable Technology, Department of Science & Technology (DST) GOI

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Navigating Failures: Farmer's Perspective

This session will focus on the challenges faced by farmers in today’s rapidly changing landscape and how they navigate growing risks and uncertainties. Farming today requires balancing risk with need, finding innovative solutions amidst limited resources, and striving for sustainability while ensuring econo mic viability.

What does this journey look like for farmers? How do they manage failures, adapt to climate change, and sustain their livelihoods in the face of mounting pressures? This session will explore these questions and highlight real examples of resilience, innovation, and determination within the farming co mmunity.

Moderated By: Anitha Reddy, Director, Sahaja Organics

Speakers: Bilansini Nath, Sambalpur, Odisha; Ramesh Khangoudar, Belagavi, Karnataka; Neelam Dutta, Assam; Krishna Chandra Nag, Kalahandi, Odisha

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Solar Irrigation Systems for Smallholder Farmers: Failures and Opportunities

Irrigation is key to farming. The Green Revolution was driven by the widespread use of borewe lls for irrigation and subsidized electricity. In recent years, government schemes and programs such as the PM-KUSUM scheme have aimed to transform irrigation practices by deploying millions of solar pumps across the country, scaling these technologies across contexts. Despite notable progress, are there some failure points to obse rve in scaling solar irrigation systems? This session explores the main failures in irrigation programs in India, and barriers to solar irrigation adoption. The focus will be on context-specific irrigation models and the intricate relationship between water, energy, food and markets.

In partnership with Sustain Plus Foundation

Speakers: Ayan Deb, Program Director, Sustain Plus Energy Foundation; Neha Bhave, Researcher, ACWADAM; Mihir Mathur, Founder, DESTA; Juwan Singh Patel, Champion Farmer; Dineshbhai Sangada, Cluster Coordinator, NM SADGURU Foundation; Asmitaben Alkeshbhai Chauhan, Champion Farmer.

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Failures in Innovations: Med-Tech for Climate-Health Nexus

Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause around 250,000 additional deaths per year. Current inequities in access to medical technologies are detrimental to public health access; and much of the medical technological innovations suffer from systemic biases and financial barriers. How does the evolving med tech market address the rising health challenges, while also addressing the inequitable access to health services? This session will explore past failures, and pave a pathway for enabling an improved understanding of opportunities in med-tech innovations for last mile.

In partnerhsip with PATH India

Speakers: Neeraj Jain, Country Director – India & Director – Growth Operations, Asia, Middle East and Europe, PATH; Nandakumar, Veteran General Surgeon; Anusha Purushotham, Head – Health Systems and Policy, Remidio; Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO and Director, C‐CAMP; Sunil Anand, Executive Director, ECHO India; Manoj Kumar, Founder Social Alpha

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Monitoring Success or Learning from Failures - Part II

Moderated By: Andre Ling, Director, Interconnect Consulting Limited;

Navigating Failures: Government's Perspective

When we think of scale, welfare, and equity, the government’s role is pivotal. It is squarely positioned to drive impactful development initiatives, yet it operates within vast and intricate systems with often limiting structures and ways of working. Navigating these complexities can be challenging, and failure within such a critical system is not only difficult to accept but often hard to dissect because of the different layers of implementation. This session offers a chance to hear from those working within the government, sharing their perspectives on how they understand and manage failures.

In partnership with SVYM

Speakers: SM Vijayanand, Chairperson, PRADAN; A. S. Kiran Kumar, Chairman, Physical Research Laboratory Management Council and Member, Space Commission, Govt of India; P.V.S. Suryakumar, Former Deputy Managing Director, NABARD; Sampath Kumar, Principal Secretary & Development Commissioner, Health & Family Welfare Department, Government of Meghalaya, India; Darshan Puttannaiah, Member, Karnataka Legislative Assembly; Shilpa Nag, Deputy Commissioner, Government of Karnataka.

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Workshop: Presencing - Seven Practices from Transforming Systems & Self

In this deep-dive session, Otto Scharmer explores the transformative potential of awareness-based systems change, drawing on the foundational principles of Theory U. He discusses how systems can only evolve when consciousness shifts, emphasizing that deep transformation requires individuals and collectives to reflect deeply on their relationships and patterns of interaction—the unseen “soil” of the social field.

Using powerful metaphors and real-world examples, Otto illustrates the shift from extractive, efficiency-driven models to regenerative, ecosystem-centric approaches across sectors such as agriculture, education, business, and governance. He highlights the critical role of leadership, listening, and presence in navigating disruption and creating the conditions for collective creativity to emerge.

This session is both a reflection and a call to action for those seeking to activate “islands of coherence” in a world facing profound challenges. By cultivating the capacity to sense and act from the emerging future, participants will gain new insights into the inner and outer shifts required to foster systemic transformation for a regenerative, intentional, and inclusive world.

Moderated by: Otto Scharmer